Kate Middleton's Dog-Gate: Firefighters Rush to Save Pooch at Duchess' Family Home

Pregnant Duchess' pet reportedly needed rescuing today after a run-in with some steel bars

By Josh Grossberg Jul 19, 2013 9:16 PMTags
Kate Middleton, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge Indigo/Getty Images

Kate Middleton can breathe a little easier—at least until she goes into labor.

Firefighters and animal rescue services responded to an call seeking emergency assistance today after a pet that may have been the expectant Duchess' beloved cocker spaniel Lupo got his head stuck between the bars of a gate at her family's $3 million estate in Bucklebury.

Greg Blatchford, a photographer who was on the scene, tells E! News that the incident happened at approximately 5:05 p.m. GMT time when he heard someone shouting for a dog. While he didn't quite catch the name, he said it sounded like "Lupo."

"Soon after I heard a high-pitched scream which sounded like a banshee," he said."It was very loud. At one point, the screaming calmed down, then suddenly got worse."

Blatchford presumes that's when the dog was freed from between the bars of the gate. He was there when the single fire truck turned up, though he didn't see it.

According to the U.K. Telegraph, the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service in nearby Reading responded to the distress call for animal rescue to come to the home, but upon arriving shortly before 6 p.m. they learned that the animal had been freed. Authorities couldn't confirm which canine it was.

"Our crew got to the manor but were told as they arrived at the gates that the dog, which had got its head stuck, had been freed just a few moments earlier so their services were not needed," a spokesman for Berkshire's emergency services told the paper. "The animal rescue unit was stood down before it reached Bucklebury and the appliance returned home."

Chris Jackson/Getty Images

As it turns out, Middleton wasn't at the residence in any event as E! News confirmed that Prince William and his very pregnant wife had left the residence by car earlier in the day for London, though where they were going isn't exactly known as they could easily be headed to their Kensington Palace digs and not St. Mary's Hospital, where hordes of paparazzi and fans are staked out awaiting the birth.

As for when she's having the royal baby, that's a mystery the whole world anxiously wants an answer to.

A source told E! News that Kensington Palace has been operating under the assumption that the 31-year-old Middleton is two to three days past her due date while other media reports indicate the Prince or Princess of Cambridge is due today, July 19.

Only time will tell.

—Reporting by Lindsay Good